


The Seine Flows

by Xyrias_Sol



Category: Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: Gen, Gleb/Javert parallels, mentions of Les Mis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 10:05:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12579308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xyrias_Sol/pseuds/Xyrias_Sol
Summary: I couldn't help but notice the Gleb/Javert parallels, so what if Gleb noticed them, too?





	The Seine Flows

**Author's Note:**

> Since I'm no native speaker, there are probably lots of mistakes in here. If you feel bored you can point every single one out to me, I'm happy to correct them.  
> Also thanks to all the wonderful people on the Anastasia server (won't name you all, becuase I have the tendency to always forget people)! Without you, I probably wouldn't have written this.

_I'm not my father's son after all._  
This is the only thought inside Deputy Commissioner Gleb Vaganov's head, as he aimlessly walks through the streets of Paris. It swirls around in his mind, echoing over and over again.  
Everything he thought he was, he thought he believed in, turned upside down by this girl...this street sweeper. No, she's a Grand Duchess now. The last living Romanov.  
He doesn't even know where he's going. After leaving Anya...Anastasia behind, he just headed outside going anywhere and nowhere.  
Houses, streets and people are just blurs passing by. It's a wonder he doesn't walk into a bulding.  
His step falters, as Gleb realises where his feet had taken him. He's standing on a bridge. The Palais de Justice right in front of him and the Pont Notre Dame just to his left.  
He's standing on Pont au Change.  
He stops and is taken back to all those evenings he read together with his mother. They didn't have many books, they were hard to come by and way too expensive, so they read the same books over and over again.  
One of them was Les Miserablés by the French writer Victor Hugo. Gleb didn't know why they even had this book, since father would always scowl when he saw that book in his hands and tell him he should rather read some good _Russian_ literature.  
And now he was standing on the same bridge Inspector Javert stood on, after his whole life was turned upside down.  
Gleb couldn't help but snort at the realisation that the two of them weren't so different now. Just as Gleb himself, Javert didn't know what to do with his life any more, after the escaped convict Jean Valjean proved to him that the world wasn't as he had always believed it was.  
Gleb never really cared for the Inspector, didn't like him even. How could that man claim to do justice, to be the law, when the people suffered under the French regime, that he stood for?  
His mother used to pat him on the head and say: ”You want to be like Enjolras, when you're older, don't you Glebka?”  
In response he always nodded eagerly. _Of course I want to be like Enjolras_ , he'd tell himself. _He's like father: fighting for the people, fighting for the revolution. Only that father would win…_  
But deep down, he knew he actually wanted to be like Jean Valjean. Compassionate and helping people wherever he could.  
Gleb laughs out loud now, while staring into the rushing waters of the Seine.  
How ironic that instead of standing in Valjean's footsteps, Gleb now found himself being where his dark counter piece Javert stood instead. The character he thought he'd never completely understand.  
_Nothing is as it should be_ , he thinks.  
For a moment he allows himself to picture a future where everything is _right._  
He pulls the trigger. Anastasia's lifeless body slumps to the ground. He goes back to Russia. He gets promoted. Everything is fine. Everything is as it should be.  
With a sigh Gleb closes his eyes. Nothing with that future is fine, it's a terrible one.  
Again he stares at the Seine below him, getting lost in the swirling of the water.  
_Is that what Javert felt like when he stood just here?_ , he wonders. _Did he feel so lost, not knowing where to go, what to do?_  
Sure, Gleb could go back to Russia. Telling them, what he said to Anastasia what he'd tell them. _I'm not my father's son after all._  
Mother said he had died of shame. And for a moment Gleb wonders if he's more his father's son now than ever before.  
With another sigh he slowly moves to stand atop the bridge's balustrade. No one is there to stop him.  
_Why not finish it?_ , he asks himself. _Why not fully become Inspector Javert now?_  
He's come so far already, so why stop now?  
Gleb wants to close his eyes, just close his eyes and jump. It's so easy. But instead the flowing water captures his eyes once more.  
And he thinks of the Neva, his wonderful river.  
And he looks up to the city of Paris, but all he sees is his wonderful Leningrad.  
And he looks up into the blue, blue sky, seeing Anastasia's Romanov eyes.  
_No._  
Disgusted at himself Gleb steps down again.  
“No!”, he whispers. _I will not become my father! I will not become Javert!_  
And with that he turns his back to the bridge.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, comments are always appreciated however short they are.


End file.
